US20030011218A1

US20030011218A1 - Symmetrical leg frame for chairs

Info

Publication number: US20030011218A1
Application number: US09/903,537
Authority: US
Inventors: Lausan Liu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-07-13
Filing date: 2001-07-13
Publication date: 2003-01-16

Abstract

A symmetrical leg frame for chairs is located at two sides of a chair frame. The leg frame at each side consisting of a front leg support and a rear leg support. The front leg support and the rear leg support have respectively an inner curvy and symmetrical side surface facing each other, and have respectively a bottom end engaging with a foot pad to compensate the angle formed by the front and rear leg support when contact ground surface so that the chair may stand on the ground surface steadily when extended. The front leg support and rear leg support are shaped in a symmetrical curve to augment aesthetic appealing of the chair.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an improved symmetrical leg frame for chairs and particularly a chair that has a symmetrical and curvy leg frame to add aesthetic appealing of the chair in the extending and folding conditions.

Product design in the modern time has to consider many factors. In addition to the basic elements of convenience and practicality, visual appealing is also an important factor. There are a wide variety of household furniture available on the market. Many of those furniture are designed with multiple colors and sophisticated shapes for creating special appealing to consumers. Taking chairs as an example, a conventional folding chair (as shown in FIG. 1) usually consists of a back frame, a seat frame, two armrests bordering at two sides, and a front and rear leg support. The seat frame and back frame may be folded relatively towards each other and the front and rear leg support may collapse to become a folding state (as shown in FIG. 2). Thereby the size of the folded chair may become much smaller and storing or transportation is more convenient. In order to add visual appealing of the chair, some producers resort painting or coating the components of the chair with colors. Applying colors or forming patterns on the chairs is relatively easy. As shrinking the size is a vital function for the folding chair, the front and rear leg support are generally made of straight tubular elements so that they can be packed to a small size when folding. As a result, other components such as seat frame and armrests also have to match the leg supports and formed linearly. The appearance of the chairs is plain and dull with little aesthetic appealing. The elegant chairs with curvy shapes are generally not folding chairs. As curvy design and structure of the leg supports and armrests are not foldable after they are assembled by soldering or fastening, the chairs with aesthetic appearance create additional space requirements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the invention is to resolve the foregoing disadvantages by providing a folding chair that also has aesthetic appealing. The chair according to the invention includes two leg frames located at two sides of a chair frame for supporting the chair frame. Each leg frame has a front leg support and a rear leg support which have respectively an inner curvy side surface facing each other in a symmetrical manner. The front and rear leg support further have respectively a foot pad engaged at one end thereof to compensate the angle resulting from the contact of the leg support to the ground surface thereby to allow the chair standing on the ground surface steadily when extended. The chair thus constructed has better aesthetic appealing whether in the extending or folding state.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of this invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. [0004]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional chair. [0005]
FIG. 2 is a side view of a conventional chair, at a folding state. [0006]
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the invention. [0007]
FIG. 4 is a side view of the invention, at an extending state. [0008]
FIG. 5 is a side view of the invention, at a folding state. [0009]
FIG. 6 is a side view of another embodiment of the invention.[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the chair according to the invention has a [0011] chair frame 1 with two sides thereof supported respectively by a front leg support 4 and a rear leg support 5. The chair frame 1 includes a seat pad section 12 pivotally engaged with the middle portion of the front and rear leg support 4 and 5, a back pad section 11 which has a lower end pivotally engaged with the rear end of the seat pad section 12, and two armrests 13 each being pivotally engaged with one side of the back pad section 11 and also pivotally engage with the top ends of the front and rear leg support 4 and 5. The front and rear leg support 4 and 5 have respectively an inner side surface 42 and 54 facing each other and are shaped in a curvy and symmetrical fashion. The front and rear leg support 4 and 5 further have respectively a bottom end engaging with a foot pad 41 and 51 to compensate the angle formed by the front and rear leg support 4 and 5 when contact ground surface so that the chair may stand steadily on the ground surface when extended. The foot pads 41 and 51 may also be integrally formed by bending the front and rear leg support 4 and 5. The curvy and symmetrical front and rear leg support 4 and 5 give the chair more aesthetic appealing either at the extending or folding state.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the [0012] rear leg support 5 further has a slide sleeve 52 and a matching anchor lever 53. The slide sleeve 52 has a slot 521. There is a constraint element 522 fixedly mounted to the rear leg support 5 and located in the slot 521. Hence the slide sleeve 52 is slidable up or down on the rear leg support 5 at a displacement defined by the slot 521. The anchor lever 53 has a latch tongue 531 formed at one end for engaging with the slide sleeve 52 to form a latched state to prevent the chair from inadvertently folding or collapsing (the safety slide sleeve 52 and the associated latching elements are known in the art, thus their structural details will be omitted here).
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 6, when the chair of the invention is extended, the [0013] foot pads 41 and 51 contact the ground surface to compensate the tilted angles of the of the front and rear leg support 4 and 5 relative to the ground surface. The bottom sides of the foot pad 41 and 51 may further have anti-skid reinforced rib surfaces 411 and 511 to allow the chair to support human weight securely and steadily without skidding. In addition to the curvy side surfaces 42 and 54, the armrests 13 and seat pad section 12 may also be made in curvy forms to match the leg supports 4 and 5 to augment total aesthetic appealing of the chair (of course, different forms of curvy side surfaces 42′ and 54′ may be designed based on aesthetic considerations and requirements, and foot pads 41′ and 51′ of different angles may also be designed to fit various front and rear leg supports 4′ and 5′).
Referring to FIG. 5, for folding the chair, move the [0014] slide sleeve 52 upwards to disengage with the latch tongue 531 of the anchor lever 53, then apply force on the front end of the seat pad section 12 and the top end of the back pad section 11 to make the two folding toward each other. The pivotal elements set forth above will interact and move accordingly to form a folding state. The curvy side surfaces 42 and 54 of the front and rear leg support 4 and 5 can match snugly to shrink total size of the chair. The armrests 13 and seat pad section 12 may also be shaped to match the leg supports 4 and 5 to form a compact folding condition. Therefore, instead of plain and linear tubular frames commonly seen in the conventional folding chairs, the invention provides a curvy and elegant chair structure that is convenient to use and fold, and also have attractive aesthetic appearance.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention. [0015]

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A symmetrical leg frame for a chair located at two sides of a chair frame, the leg frame at each side comprising a front leg support and a rear leg support, wherein:

the front leg support and the rear leg support have respectively an inner curvy and symmetrical side surface facing each other, and have respectively a bottom end engaging with a foot pad to compensate the angle formed by contacting the leg supports to the ground surface to allow the chair standing on the ground surface steadily when extended, the front leg support and rear leg support being shaped with a curve to augment aesthetic appealing of the chair.

2. The symmetrical leg frame for a chair of claim 1, wherein the foot pad has an anti-skid reinforced rib surface to prevent the chair from skidding.

3. The symmetrical leg frame for a chair of claim 1, wherein the foot pad is integrally formed from the front leg support and the rear leg support by bending the front and the rear leg support.